I welcome the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I call on the Minister for the Environment and Local Government to release £14 million to enable central heating to be installed in corporation houses. This issue is particularly relevant at this time of year, given the weather conditions we have experienced over the past few days. Elderly people are suffering particularly badly from the cold. Many of the people in corporation flats have paid rent all their lives, but most of the flats do not have central heating.
Elderly people in areas in my constituency, such as Cherry Orchard, have been corporation tenants for many years and have paid their rent. However, their flats do not have the benefit of central heating. This is particularly worrying because they do not receive a substantial fuel allowance. One of the complaints I hear on a regular basis from many of my constituents is that the fuel allowance is ineffective. It means they must pay an inordinate amount of money trying to keep their houses warm by other means. On that basis alone, consideration should be given to providing them with some comfort by installing central heating.
The RAPID plan was paraded recently by the Government. The purpose of this scheme is to prioritise the national development plan's spending on local authorities. However, no money is currently available under the plan for the installation of central heating to give corporation tenants a decent quality of life. Contractors were ready to install central heating in many houses if money had been made available to them. Huge sums of money are being set aside for projects such as Stadium Ireland, which will not benefit the corporation tenants about whom I am concerned. It is a shame the Government's priorities are not different and that a relatively modest amount of money, £14 million, is not available for this work. I call on the Minister for the Environment and Local Government to make this money available so that elderly tenants in particular, many of whom live in poverty, can be given some degree of comfort in their old age through the provision of central heating in their corporation houses.